I. Technical Field
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section. The present disclosure relates to image forming apparatuses performing overprint processing on a background object, where an underlying region of the background object is overlapped by a foreground object.
II. Description of the Related Art
Typical image forming apparatuses perform print-out processing through image processing on the basis of image data input though, for example, a network.
Such image forming apparatuses may perform overprint processing as part of image processing.
Overprint processing is performed by coloring an underlying region of a background object in image data overlapped by a foreground object. This coloring of the underlying region is performed with the color of the foreground object while leaving the color of the background object as is.
Specifically, image data to be processed includes combinations of the color values of a plurality of color components corresponding to a color space. In overprint processing, the color value of a region of the background object that is underlying the foreground object is overwritten. This color value is overwritten with the color value of the region of the foreground object that overlaps the background object. This color value of the foreground object indicates that the region of the foreground object is colored for each color component.
A typical image forming apparatus converts input image data into data based on CMYK (color space). CMYK is the output color space taking into consideration the output characteristics of a device. Based on CMYK, overprint processing may be performed on the basis of the image data subsequent to the color conversion.
In a typical image forming apparatus, in the case where the color space of input image data is based on CMYK, the output color values may be different from the original color values after conversion into CMYK. This is caused by image data being corrected after color conversion to prevent variations in the color of a printed-out image. Correcting image data may be based on the characteristics of devices differing based on the type of device and may change from device to device, possibly due to wear and use, or the like.
In this case, undesirable output results may be obtained since overprint processing is performed for color values that are different from the original color values.